


Driven

by Enchantable



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friendship, The Drift (Pacific Rim)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-17
Updated: 2013-08-17
Packaged: 2017-12-23 20:20:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enchantable/pseuds/Enchantable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako and Raleigh meet for the first time as co-pilots</p>
            </blockquote>





	Driven

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: After Mako arrives as his partner and asks "Are you going to say anything?" And Raleigh just tells her: "No point. Five minutes you'll be inside my head...You look good." (unf) So the actual prompt is: Mako's reaction to Raleigh's reaction to her. :)

Mako holds herself still as they fit the armor to her.

The crew is trying to remain professional but they’re all smiles. Not in a snide way, but in a way like the day they’ve been waiting for is here. She thinks they’ve wanted her to be Gipsy’s second pilot since Stacker announced this plan. They’ve certainly planned for it. She knows very well that armor does not come in her size. Especially not the female kind. But they plates they fit on her feel like they were made specifically for her even though there hasn’t been time for that.

Two men escort her to the lift and give her a salute.

She returns it and steps inside, letting the doors close in front of her. The lift rises up the scaffolding and she feels like everyone’s eyes are on her again. Like she’s that little girl in the blue coat, clutching her red shoe and crying for her mother. She shoves the feeling down and holds herself a little straighter as the lift gets to the top of the scaffolding. The bridge that separates her from Gipsy’s cockpit seems impossibly long and foreboding.

Mako doesn’t think she’s ever felt more out of place.

She imagines anyone would, were they in her boots. She’s a replacement pilot. The chances of this actually working are slim. Her head is a dark place, even she doesn’t like getting lost in there. In the pit of her stomach she feels like Gipsy is judging her. Like the Jaeger knows it should be Yancy or one of the other candidates making this walk, not her. But then she remembers the way Raleigh looked at her, the feel of his hand on her back and the confidence in his voice. ‘She’s my co-pilot’. He may be wrong, but Mako will not let him down so easily.

She steps forward with one foot, then the other, forcing herself not to sprint lest she lose her nerve. She comes to the cockpit and squares her shoulders before peering inside. Raleigh has his back to the entrance, his eyes moving across the new modifications to the cockpit. Gipsy’s shinier and newer, but the original pieces that could be used are still there. She watches him press his hand to one like an old friend before coming over to the pilot rig, taking the side his brother used.

"I’m gonna take this side if you don’t mind. My left arm’s kinda shot," he says and Mako fights not to blush.

Of course he’s heard her come in. He’s a Jaeger pilot. He still isn’t looking though. A part of her wants to tell him she knows his arm isn’t the only reason he’s taking that side, but the rest of her pushes that thought away. Instead she walks forward as he begins to make adjustments to the rig, still not looking at her.

"Sure," she says and it’s a miracle her voice is steady.

His eyes raise and for a moment she can see how impossible this is. How much it hurts him to be back in the cockpit, to know that the co-pilot who would walk through the doors won’t be Yancy. That he’s going to have to invite someone else into his head, that he’s going to have to pilot Gipsy without him. He’s so open with his emotions Mako’s surprised he’s lasted this long. Even his attempt at keeping his face blank falls miles short.

And then it all drains away.

There’s still pain there but now there’s relief. Relief and surprise—but not the bad kind—and to Mako’s everlasting shock his face splits into a smile that borders on a grin. His entire posture seems to relax at the sight of her and Mako is profoundly grateful she doesn’t blush easily. He just looks at her, still smiling and for the first time since she pulled on her suit she smiles back at him.

"Aren’t you going to say anything?" she asks him.

"No point," he says with a shake of his head, "five minutes you’ll be inside my head."

The reminder wipes the smile from her face and sends her stomach plummeting. But he softens and when he looks at her there’s something like pride in his eyes. Like being her co-pilot is not something to be ashamed of.

"You look good," he says and suddenly despite all the nerves the smile is back.

Then they’re strapped in and connected and suddenly she’s not just herself anymore.

She doesn’t just look good in his eyes.

She looks beautiful.


End file.
